Nawaz, Shahbaz Placed under House Arrest
Hours after Islamabad was said to be working out possibilities of reviewing a Supreme Court order banning him from electoral politics and holding constitutional office, former Pakistani prime minister and leader of the opposition PML-N, Nawaz Sharif, has been placed under house arrest in Lahore on Sunday, say media reports.
Attributing the information to a key PML-N functionary media reports say Nawaz was put under house arrest hours before he was scheduled to address a protest rally.
“Detention orders have been issued for Nawaz Sharif, Shahbaz Sharif and other senior party leaders,” Sharif party official Naseer Ahmed Bhutta was quoted as saying by Reuters in a breaking news update.
Sharif’s brother, Shahbaz, was the Chief Minister of Punjab until the court order barred the Sharifs from contesting elections and holding constitutional offices.
The court decision sparked fresh turmoil in the country already battling with nosediving financial indices and spiraling terror incidence with the PML-N rekindling an agitation to seek the reinstatement of judges ousted from former President Pervez Musharraf when he clamped emergency in 2007.
Thousands of Sharif supporters ignored government orders banning public assembly to participate in a grueling 1,500 km long march that reaches the federal capital of Islamabad on Monday.
